I attended a photo workshop in historic Annapolis this past weekend. I’m still learning. Here are a few shots to show you how we were bracketing our photos to see if we liked one setting better than another. NO post processing has been done. These are straight from the camera. I haven’t learned Photoshop yet! Or Lightroom.
I finally decided to get serious about working out again. Last year, before my obscene bout of fatigue, I had been doing very well using Jillian Michael’s 30Day Shred DVD. I had actually made it through the whole DVD and had felt so much stronger that I decided to try P90 (not P90X, I was not ready for that). For some reason I began to have serious fatigue and completely stopped working out.
So this spring finally rolls around and I realize I have been making some serious changes to the way I eat. The problem was that it just wasn’t enough. At my age, I’m over 40, simply dieting wasn’t going to cut it. I needed to stop making excuses and start exercising again. I started out more simply this time by using our elliptical trainer and my old HeathRider. Once I felt my stamina increase I decided to grab that 30Day Shred DVD and really make a run at it. I am 20 days in now and doing well. I have increased my stamina and my upper body strength considerably. I have begun shaping my body so that I have a more defined waist and slimmer thighs. I have been pushing myself throughout the program to try to force my body to adapt more quickly. One way I’m doing this is to use a slightly heaviewe hand weight. This small change is forcing my shoulder muscles to develop faster and I’m getting stronger much more quickly than I did last year.
Tomorrow I start the last 10 days of my first round of the 30Day Shred. I’m always a little fearful when starting a new level (ideally you more up a level every 10 days) but I’m feeling confident in my body’s abilities to change and improve. Wish me luck, since summer is right around the corner. Stay Well.
I’m a sucker for a great soap. I think it is because no matter your size, hair color, or skin type, a well scented, luxurious soap can make you feel special. So for me, if I’m not having a great day, and am craving a little pick me up, I can use one of my lovely soaps and feel beautifully scented and pampered.
Speaking of lovely soaps, this past week I received a bar of Woodbury soap from Angela’s Crafts’ new line of Goat Milk soaps. Angela selected the Woodbury scent for me and I think she must have been truly inspired because the base fragrance in it is grapefruit! I adore grapefruit (it happens to also be my favorite flavor of Jelly Beans!). In addition to the grapefruit, Woodbury contains notes of sweet berries and earthy woods, which means it isn’t too sweet, but still has a feminine quality . I was planning on keeping the soap in our powder room where it could gently scent the room, while inspiring the kids to wash their hands, as they LOVE bar soaps, but I realized I tend to wash my hands more often at our kitchen sink. So I’ve placed it on a beautiful silver soap dish for me to use multiple times a day. My little treat to myself.
One of the reasons I love Angela’s Crafts’ soaps are that they are made without parabens, sodium laurel sulfate, unnatural preservatives and petroleum products! I can’t abide petroleum products. And although the Goats Milk line, like the soap I reviewed, is not Vegan, she does offer many Vegan options too. From the ingredient list it appears as if they are gluten free – mine contains:
Angela has kindly offered a lovely giveaway. It includes:
To enter the giveaway simple head over to Angela’s Crafts and leave me a comment here telling me which scent you would like to try. For additional chances to win you can do any of the following, but for each item you do, remember to leave me a comment with the proper link. Please leave your email address so that I can contact the winner.
The winner will be chosen at random by a random number generator. The contest will run from Friday April 13, 2012 to 11:59:59 Friday April 27, 2012. Once the winner is selected I will send a notifying email and the winner has 48 hours to claim the prize or a new winner will be selected.
Angela’s Crafts provided me with the Woodbury soap free of charge. All opinions are my own.
This is the positive results showing my son probably has P.A.N.D.A.S. – Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disease Associated with Streptoccal Infection.
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